The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race in Texas was marred by numerous wrecks that had many of the favorites exit the race early with extensive damage to their cars. Texas Motor Speedway was repaved last year, plus the cold weather, helped make the track very fast, contributing to the many wrecks.

Kyle Busch finally got the second-place monkey off his back as he held off Kevin Harvick for the victory.  Last season, it took 21 races before Kyle Busch won a race and then won four others that year.  It took seven races this year for him to win a Cup race. As strong as he has been, he might easily surpass the five wins in 2017. Harvick may have a lot to say about it, as he has been very competitive this year, winning three times already. 

Harvick and Kyle Busch were the dominant cars at Texas. Harvick led 87 laps and won the first stage while Busch led 116 laps, winning stage 2 and the race. Harvick probably should have won the race but his pit stops were full of miscues. Harvick and several other teams had NASCAR air gun problems again resulting in loose wheels. Another incident saw a lug nut fly into the jack, preventing it from operating properly resulting in a long pit stop. Harvick did get lucky when his pit crew let a tire get loose which should have resulted in a penalty, but NASCAR, for whatever reason, let it slide. After the race NASCAR admitted it made a mistake on the call. Despite all the pit road miscues that resulted in lost track positions, Harvick still had the fastest car which enabled him to keep moving back into contention.

Harvick’s crew chief Rodney Childers spoke up on live TV about the air guns, part of a tire epidemic that plagued the Texas race. Over a quarter of the field pitted under green for loose wheels while several tire failures led to spectacular crashes.

There were eight caution flags. Seven were for incidents on the track.  The last six drivers could easily have won the race and normally run in the top 10 in most races. These drivers included Martin Truex, Jr., Kyle Larson, Jimmy Johnson, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski and Aric Almorola. 

Kyle Busch maintained his points lead with Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Harvick and Truex rounding out the top five.

Sundays race will be in Bristol.